Just as it is impossible to decide on the ground of this mantra taken by itself what special cup is meant -- it being possible to ascribe, somehow or other, the quality of the mouth being turned downward to any cup -- so here also there is no special quality stated, so that it is not possible to decide from the mantra itself whether the pradhâna is meant by the term ajâ, or something else.

The word ajâ neither expresses that fire, water, and earth belong to the goat species, nor is it to be explained as meaning 'unborn;' it rather expresses an assumption, i.e. it intimates the assumption of the source of all beings (which source comprises fire, water, and earth), being compared to a she-goat.